Exiled Honduran leader vows return for showdown

TEGUCIGALPA – Honduras braced for confrontation yesterday as ousted President Manuel Zelaya insisted he was coming home to reclaim his post, urging his supporters to mass at the airport for a showdown with the interim government in power since the army sent him into exile a week ago.

The poor Central American country’s Roman Catholic archbishop urged Zelaya to stay away, warning that his return could spark bloodshed. The interim government stuck to its threat to arrest Zelaya and put him on trial despite near-universal international condemnation of the coup that removed him over his campaign to revise the constitution.In Washington, the Organisation of American States suspended Honduras as a member late on Saturday, but Zelaya’s replacement, Roberto Micheletti, already pulled the country out of the group over its ultimatum to restore Zelaya.As more than 10 000 of his supporters protested on Saturday near the heavily guarded presidential palace, Zelaya posted an audio message on the Internet urging loyalists to greet his arrival.’We are going to show up at the Honduras International Airport in Tegucigalpa … and on Sunday we will be in Tegucigalpa,’ Zelaya said in the taped statement carried Saturday on the Web sites of the Telesur and Cubadebate media outlets.He implored supporters to remain peaceful.’I ask all farmers, residents, Indians, young people and all workers’ groups, businessmen and friends … to accompany me on my return to Honduras,’ he said. ‘Do not bring weapons. Practise what I have always preached, which is nonviolence. Let them be the ones who use violence, weapons and repression.’I hold the coup plotters responsible for the lives of each and every person,’ he said.In comments to a local radio station, Zelaya said he would be accompanied by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, several foreign ministers and 300 journalists.But Fernandez said only that ‘it’s been agreed that the OAS will accompany’ Zelaya on the trip, as she exited the diplomatic meeting in Washington.Catholic Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez implored Zelaya not to confront the interim government amid the high tensions, saying in a statement broadcast Saturday that ‘your return to the country could unleash a bloodbath.’The country’s new government has vowed to arrest Zelaya if he returns, on charges alleging 18 criminal acts including treason and failing to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since taking office in 2006.Large crowds of Zelaya’s critics have countered his supporters by staging their own daily demonstrations to back Micheletti, the congressional president who was named by lawmakers to finish out the final six months of Zelaya’s term.Most of the ousted leader’s supporters come from the working and middle classes of this impoverished nation, while his opponents are based in the ranks of the well-to-do – although the increasingly leftist approach of the wealthy rancher had eroded his popular support.The military ousted Zelaya with the backing of Honduras’ political elite, including the Supreme Court, Congress and Zelaya’s own party. They say they kicked him out because he insisted on going through with a referendum on constitutional change that the Supreme Court ruled illegal.- Nampa-AP